ARTICLES ABOUT DANCE BARS BY DATE - PAGE 3

MUMBAI: Despite the SC lifting the ban on dance bars in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra, it might take several weeks - even months - for the dancing girls to make a comeback to the beer bars after the state government banished them from the city's night life eight years back. The state government, backed by all political parties, is exploring all options to challenge the top court's verdict, and is contemplating whether to file a review petition in the SC, making its intent clear that it will do whatever it takes to not allow dance bars to re-open in the state despite the ruling.

The state simply cannot expect the people to dance to only its tune without question. So the Supreme Court seems to say, in upholding the Bombay High Court judgment that scuttled the Maharashtra government's attempt to silence Mumbai's dance bars. The city police's slick pas de deux manoeuvre to bar dance bars but allow music and 'bar-dancers' to play on in tonier, starry establishments has been rightly deemed out of sync not only with modern mores but also Article 19(1)

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Dance bars, a decidedly Mumbai social invention that has served as inspiration for Bollywood filmmakers and authors besides serving as relaxation spaces for the city's plebeians and the posh, could soon reopen for business. The Supreme Court on Tuesday paved the way for these bars to reopen after an eight-year ban, upholding a Bombay High Court decision of 2006 that had struck down a law disallowing the business. In the process, the top court may have put its imprimatur on a business that has for long evoked strong reactions across the political and social aisles, bestowing it legitimacy and potentially facilitating its export as an economic idea to other cities.

MUMBAI: Despite the Supreme Court's verdict lifting the ban on dance bars in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra, it might actually take several weeks-perhaps months-for the dance bars to re-open, as the state government seemingly got a clear mandate in the assembly on Wednesday from all political parties to try out all options to discourage the dance bars from opening again. The state government has not yet decided whether to file a review petition in the Supreme Court in the dance bar case.

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has announced the formation of a legal panel to study the Supreme Court ruling striking down its decision to ban dance bars. "We have not yet received a copy of the Supreme Court ruling. A panel comprising lawyers, legal consultants and legislators will study it and submit a report to the state government," Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said, reacting to the apex court ruling. Making a statement in the Legislative Council, the minister said the panel would suggest whether to approach a full bench, file a review petition or change existing laws in the state against dance bars.

NEW DELHI: The supreme court on Tuesday upheld a Bombay High Court order permitting bar girls to follow their profession. The high court order had struck down a law brought in by Maharashtra State barring hotels and restaurants from holding such performances. The hotel associations and the bar girls had moved the high court against the law. The high court had ruled in their favour, prompting the state to appeal to the top court. Now, bars, restaurants and hotels can get licenses from police to hold such performances in their premises.

PANAJI: The authorities in Goa today claimed that they would shut down the Playboy Club scheduled to be opened in the state next month if it is found to be indulging in obscenity, vulgarity or nudity . The local franchisee of the Playboy Club yesterday announced its plans to open India's first club at Candolim in Goa. This would be first among its chain of 100 clubs the local franchisee intends to open in the next ten years. Director of Tourism Nikhil Desai told PTI he has no idea about the club, although the application may have been processed by the department.

MUMBAI: Cricket is now officially an entertainment sport. Forty-five years after it declared horse racing as entertainment, the state government has decided to add cricket to the list. Besides cricket, pubs, discotheques, internet protocol television (IPTV) and permit rooms with a live orchestra (dance bars earlier) will also attract a similar tax. There are 22 discotheques in Maharashtra, of which 20 are in Mumbai city, Mumbai suburbs and Thane. Only two are in Pune. The decision was approved by the state cabinet on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Raising concern over increasing sex tourism, CBI director Ashwani Kumar on Monday said even religious places of the country are not spared by the menace. "Most serious part is that some of the religious places in India and tourist destinations are getting affected by this crime (sex tourism and prostitution) which is a very serious thing," Kumar said on the sidelines of a two-day seminar on 'Organised Crime and Human Trafficking' here. "The alarming trend is that in the last few years sex tourism, especially child sex tourism, pedophilia and prostitution have emerged as the areas of crime," the CBI chief said.

KATHMANDU: Nepal's new Maoist government has declared war on sleaze in the capital Kathmandu, saying the increasing numbers of massage parlours and nude dance bars are driving up crime and immorality. The ultra-leftists pledged radical change in the impoverished nation after they won landmark polls in April which placed their former warlord leader as prime minister of the world's newest republic. For Bamdev Gautam, Nepal's new home minister, that means battling Kathmandu's mushrooming adult entertainment sector, which he describes as a "breeding ground for depravity" and "at the heart" of an urban crime problem.